Bank Secrecy in Hong-Kong: The Last Bastion?

Bank secrecy will slowly disappear, as of today nobody knows what the real impacts of the Common Reporting Standard and the Automatic Exchange of Financial Information will exactly be.

It’s a world premiere in front of which you have the believers, whom pragmatically affirms that the laws have to be respected and some others considering that such laws had already being implemented years ago, as example with anti-money laundering laws, without any effects for more than 20 years.

Despite a new area of transparency it's still possible to protect your privacy and to not publicly disclose private information; ‎this should be prepared and accompanied by professionals.

The best long term solution is to acquire residence in the country where your business is or in a country with territorial principle for the taxes. We could support you to obtain an investment visa in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong bank secrecy

Hong Kong did sign agreement with 13 countries (on July 1st) and will continue to increase such agreements for exchange of financial information.

For the residents in the concerned countries this will obviously means that they should reconsider their personal and professional situation and make sure that they do comply with the new laws and regulations.

For the ones not yet concerned it’s time to analyse the situation and to decide to terminate or to maintain their presence in the city.

For businesses it would be interesting in certain cases to obtain a Hong Kong Tax Residence Certificate.

Obviously some clients aren't willing to have the banks sharing their financial information with their countries of residence, this is not always dictated by their tax situation, and the wealthy are also exposed to threats such as kidnapping and blackmail.

Automatic exchange of financial information is a world premiere, this suppose loopholes and dangers unknown from the ones whom are implementing such measures.

Protecting privacy is nowadays participating de facto to an exodus going from one country to another, but although there is many mirages and wrong information (most of them linked to trust and company accounts) there is also opportunities to create a new life and a new business model and to stop being the slaves of confiscatory governments.

Basically all individuals with less than USD 800'000 of assets and the ones without international business will be forced to remain a potential victim of the AEOI.

Let’s exchange in total confidentiality about your individual case.

Is a Hong Kong bank account secret?

Most of the news about bank secrecy are outdated and/or, biased; Hong Kong bank secrecy is real and protected.

These conditions are always related to criminal or illegal activities and the use and concealment of such profits, in brief if you are a legitimate entrepreneur you don’t have to be worried.

The government couldn’t request about a bank account without good reasons; your Hong Kong bank privacy is protected.

Regarding information to tax authorities although they have no direct access to your bank account you have to prepare accounting and audit for your company and so a Certified Public Accountant will receive from you the Hong Kong bank account statements and base his work on it.